Gary Tiu, executive director and head of regulatory affairs at OSL, said that Hong Kong's cryptocurrency spot ETFs face a systemic obstacle, namely the general lack of market incentives for ETFs. He pointed out that the Hong Kong market favors unlisted products, while ETFs allow anyone to execute trades in the market. Therefore, ETFs provide very little commission incentives for stock brokers, only a few basis points or so, about 1% to 2% of the commission for selling structured products.
"So I think Hong Kong's incentive system is one of the reasons why ETFs as a financial instrument are really difficult to grow and develop," he commented.
Tiu also said that Hong Kong still has a negative attitude towards Bitcoin, Ethereum and cryptocurrencies in general. At the same time, regulators and financial institutions still have some prejudice against the industry, believing that Bitcoin ETFs are a unique risk category that needs to be treated with extra caution. (The Block)